Carlos Sainz already forced to take a 2nd MGU-K

Carlos Sainz has already reached its annual MGU-K quota. It must be said that the limit per driver is only two examples for all 21 Grands Prix of the season. The first model of the Madrilenian went up in smoke on the 11th lap of the opening race in Melbourne when his McLaren motor Renault came to a halt with a fire starting at the rear. 

Sainz confirmed ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the second round of the 2019 campaign, that the MGU-K damaged in Australia was no longer reusable. This is not the first failure for Renault on this part since McLaren had encountered similar problems during winter testing.

« Renault has studied the component in recent days; I hope they found the source of the problem, confided the Spaniard this Thursday in Bahrain. We have put solutions in place for this race, we will see if they prove effective or not. We experienced several breakages during the off-season, so it’s true that it’s a weak point on the car. 

We have to continue to work hard to make sure we don't waste any points, because we probably threw a handful out the window in Australia ».

Despite this unfortunate setback, Sainz, who was already running with a Renault engine last year while defending the colors of the factory team, affirms that the new power unit of the Losange has almost closed the performance gap which separated it from the grid references. 

« I feel like we have more power, both in race configuration and in qualifying mode, added the former Formula Renault 3.5 champion. Last year, we were 10-12 km short of top speed on Saturday. This year, it seems that we are 2-3 km from the best. This is partly due to the downforce but also to the engine, which has improved. 

Afterwards, there's not much point in being fast in a straight line if you don't go beyond the 11th lap of the race. ». 

Hard to contradict the Spaniard on this point.